Quotes from Philip Treacy

Hats are really for ultimate occasions, so when I make one, I try to do something different, something noticeable.

The classic hat image was during the Forties and Fifties, and Elizabeth Taylor was the epitome of that; she was the ultimate celebrity of excess and glamour, and she worked major sun hats.

Women come into our shop for that ultimate moment in their life. They're buying a dream. They're buying a moment for themselves. That's what I sell - moments.

Everybody loves things that sparkle.

I do say I'm a specialist in divas. Name a diva - I've worked with 'em.

Shopping can be a nightmare - first finding something to wear and then finding something to go with it, it's so difficult when there's so much choice. It can feel like entering a battleground.

I remember in the early nineties people saying the hat was just for old women, but that's ridiculous.

People are dressing like stars, which is kind of fantastic.

The success of a hat definitely lies with balancing the personality of the wearer with the type of occasion. Don't listen to those rules about face shape.

My mother had a sewing machine. I was never allowed to use it, but I was so fascinated by this little needle going up and down joining fabric together that I'd use it when my mother went out to feed the chickens.

I particularly like to travel for work because you see a completely different side of the country you're visiting.

Fashion is an illusion. It's a multibillion-pound industry that has to appear frivolous. Designers work and work and work, all night sometimes.

Elegance is all in the mind of the wearer.

I always design the hat with the wearer in mind; otherwise, it's an inanimate object.

I want to excite the eye through hatmaking.

Fantasy hats give you the possibility to dream.